Lucky
by iEvenstarEstel
Summary: All things considered, Abby and Connor have been pretty lucky.


Lucky  
2013 Evenstar Estel

"Connor, where are you?" came Abby's call over the comlink in his ear. The thrumming of his heartbeat and each gasp for breath nearly drowned out the sounds of the pouring rain and the rapid, heavy thuds of his boots on the concrete, but not his wife's voice or its evident worry. He was leading the pack with Evan, Dylan and Mac hot on his heels as the three of them chased down the rampaging Camptosaurus as it ran along the Sea Wall of Vancouver's Stanley Park. There was something about the vast area the park encompassed that seemed to be a hot bed for anomaly openings. Since the Temples had been in Vancouver to help integrate Evan Cross' operation under the umbrella of the ARC, there'd been several anomalies already. They were to be in Vancouver for six weeks in total and had already encountered five anomalies in the first three so far. Fortunately, the detector Connor had constructed for the team gave them an immediate location as soon as each anomaly had opened. It was a stable improvement from the one Toby had devised.

Still, despite the fair warning, creatures were still coming through before the team could get to the locations and lock down the anomalies. Connor had spent the better part of the first week explaining and demonstrating the nature of the anomalies as he knew them and the technologies he'd developed. The second week had been about demonstrating them in the field. Abby was reluctant to admit it, but her presence wasn't needed in the same capacity as her husband's. In truth, she'd come along due to a deep seated need to be near him, to know exactly what he was getting up to, and to keep him in check. Since discovering that they were going to become parents, it didn't sit right with her for them to be separated. She was barely past the halfway point in her pregnancy, but her instincts told her that she and Connor shouldn't be separated by five thousand miles, an entire continent and an ocean. Nor were they meant to be separated by him going out to help deal with a creature incursion!

In the wake of the events from the previous year with Connor meeting up again with Evan and his team at the anomaly injunction, the situation in Vancouver had changed from the timeline Evan and Dylan knew and the one where Connor had first met them. It was still a bit of a mind scramble to sort out the mess that had been created, but over the course of time, Evan had got things back to where he wanted them, with the exception of Mac Rendall being six years older and having been with Evan from the inception of Cross Photonics while an alternative Mac back home in the UK had gone into military service after all.

None of the team, even Dylan with all her studies, could identify a creature on first sight and while they had Connor's database, they hadn't Connor's brilliant mind or instant recall. Abby had reluctantly sent him off, with his promise he'd stay out of the action once he'd helped determine what sort of creature they were dealing with. That had flown out the window in short order, as she'd learned from her vantage point, monitoring the team in the same capacity as Jess did back home. The Camptosaurus, while fortunately an herbivore, was still eleven feet tall and over thirty long. Unsurprisingly it was petrified being in unfamiliar territory with the city lights to one side and open water to the other. After cutting a panicked swath through the abandoned zoo in Stanley Park, it found its way to the Sea Wall where the team encountered it.

It was either a curse or a blessing that it was close to midnight. There were no people around save for the homeless that camped in the woods, however it also made the team's job a hell of a lot more difficult in the dark. Most herbivores found safe havens before nightfall, and this one was exposed and terrified. Abby and Dylan both sympathized and guided the team as best they could on how to approach the situation. The Camptosaurus had got lost in the dark and needed to be guided back to the anomaly, which was located near the outermost point of the park.

The plan of action was to herd the animal along the Sea Wall and back through the portal home. If they could keep it out of the forests, then it should be a fairly straightforward mission. When they arrived on the scene and the creature bolted at the sounds of the engines and the shocking brightness of the headlights, they knew they had to pursue it on foot. With EMDs provided by the ARC, they decided to use low level pulses to the ground to drive it along. The creature would feel the electricity vibrate underfoot and hopefully move in the direction the team wanted. The presence of several small bipeds in the dark would hopefully go unnoticed.

There were however a few hitches. For one, the Sea Wall was several kilometers in length, and secondly, being springtime in British Columbia, it was raining, and raining hard. The four of them were drenched in less than a minute. They ran alongside the inlet as the wind picked up the sea water and threw it over the pathway, nearly knocking them off their feet at any given moment. Furthermore, they had to be accurate with their shots so the electricity didn't travel back through the puddles and streams and shock them instead of the creature.

As Connor set the pace, he mentally berated himself for putting himself in this situation. He'd made promises to Abby not to put himself in danger and yet here he was out in the middle of what was mounting into a full on storm, chasing after a dinosaur in the pitch black of night. He was going to beg forgiveness when it was all over and shackle himself to a desk for the rest of their stay. In the meantime, they had a creature to get home and an anomaly to lock. While he'd been able to condense the locking mechanisms into a size small enough to fit into a briefcase sized locker, it still weighed a hefty amount. He was determined not to let it slow him down and he pushed himself harder.

They'd been in silent pursuit for quite some time, prompting Abby to reach out to them.

"Along Burrard Inlet, we can see the Lions' Gate Bridge! The anomaly should be around the next bend!" Evan shouted a breathless reply back to Abby and Toby.

"Boss, we're heading down Georgia Street," Toby explained as she drove herself and Abby down into the park. Toby had quickly learned that there was no arguing with Abby Temple when it came to her man. She insisted they be there to look after the team once the creature was back through and the anomaly was locked. The petite blond could get rather scary when speaking quietly with few words. Toby was pretty sure Abby and she were going to be excellent friends because of it. Badass women had to stick together after all.

"What? Why? Abby..." Connor began.

"Don't argue," Abby replied evenly in a no nonsense tone. Connor wisely didn't speak another word. He loved his wife, but ever since she'd started down the road to motherhood she'd become dangerously protective as well as authoritative. In truth, Connor actually found it rather sexy when she bossed him around. Mac, Evan and Dylan all had smirks on their faces and Connor just smiled.

With the anomaly's swirling prisms in sight, they drove the Camptosaurus harder, everyone feeling immense relief once it disappeared back home. The four in pursuit skidded to a halt, all of them breathing hard with hearts pounding in their chest. Connor was eternally grateful that Becker had been training him during the past year and had made him as fit as he was. The skinny geek he'd been when he'd first come to Professor Cutter would've been astonished to know the man he'd become.

Connor set to work getting the locking mechanism set up and engaged. When it was done he collapsed back against the ground, exhausted and relieved, but soaked through to the bone. He looked up at Evan's outstretched hand and reached for it, letting the other man pull him up to his feet.

"Good work," said Evan, patting Connor on the back. "What's his name? Becker? He warned me that things always go sideways when you're out in the field. You can gloat and tell him he was wrong."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" Connor laughed. "Right, since the anomaly obviously leads to the mid-Cretaceous, we don't need the dating calendar to tell us. But, this is the prefect opportunity to test the prototype to the Timing Device me n' Toby have been working on. Let's see when this is going to close." He approached the anomaly, pushing the strands of wet hair from in front of his eyes. Just then a massive wave crested over the side of the wall, knocking Connor off his feet and pulling him back over the edge to the rocky beach below. The others could do nothing as Connor was swept away. Immediately, Evan jumped down after him, finding him laying flat out, face down on the boulders below with the waves crashing over him.

Connor sputtered and groaned before crying out in agony when he tried to get to his feet. From above Dylan shone a torch down while Mac made his way to the other two men to help. Together they dragged Connor back up on to the Sea Wall, just as Toby pulled up in the Cross Photonics SUV. They laid Connor down as he continued to groan in obvious pain.

"Connor!" came Abby's distressed voice as she rushed to his side, pulling on her raincoat and its hood to keep herself dry. In the gleam of the headlights and the falling rain, Abby knelt down and cradled her husband's head in her lap as Dylan assessed him.

"I think I've broken me leg," Connor whined, pain coursing down to his toes and up his spine. He winced as Dylan cut open his trouser leg, revealing a massive welt on his shin.

"Oh, Connor," Abby cajoled, bending over him to keep the rain from his face as she stroked his cheek. He snuggled against his wife and suppressed a wave of nausea as the pain in his leg threatened to overwhelm him.

"M'sorry, didn't mean to get hurt. It was going pretty good there for a while. Least I didn't get a knock to the head, again," he finally spoke.

"Come on, let's get you to hospital."

Four hours later, Connor hobbled his way into the flat they were calling home whilst they were in Vancouver. He was full of painkillers with a cast on his right leg. Thankfully he was reasonably good at manoeuvring on his crutches. He reeked of sea water and Abby made him strip naked before she wrapped the cast in a trash bag so he could shower. The next six to eight weeks were going to be a challenge for him, but Abby thought perhaps fracturing his leg was a blessing in disguise. He'd already given up going out in the field back home and now he'd be forced to adopt the same whilst they were in Canada. He'd now have no choice but to focus on finishing getting the Vancouver ARC's tech installed and tested, leaving the field work to Evan and the others. Plus, she could spend time assisting him when she wasn't scouting out locations for a potential menagerie with Dylan.

Also, she'd not have to worry about him having a more severe accident. He was taking becoming a father very seriously, but being out in Vancouver, he'd been seeing it as a holiday from their lives back home. She didn't want to imagine how carried away he might have gotten had she not insisted on coming with him on this trip. Six weeks apart from him was unimaginable and he'd agreed. Their lives were always changing and always challenging and the best they could do was muddle through and find compromises while doing the best they could. They were bringing a new life into the world in four months and they'd have to continue to adapt. The most important thing would always be their family and that couldn't be forgotten.

Abby sighed and flipped over her grilled cheese sandwich in the frying pan, watching the gooey cheese ooze out the sides. It wasn't uncommon for her to be up in the middle of the night for a snack. The baby was giving her the oddest cravings. Judging by the mound of pickles in the dish beside her plate and the strawberry ice cream that awaited her in the freezer, those cravings weren't going away any time soon. She patted her growing belly and was rewarded by a gentle nudge from inside. She'd been feeling their little one's kicks for three weeks now, the first time being whilst they were on the plane from London to Vancouver, but it was only in the past two days that Connor had been able to feel them too.

She set her food on her plate and made her way to the living area, meeting Connor as he came fresh from his shower with his robe on, navigating on his crutches. He sat himself down on the sofa and put his fractured leg up on the table with a groan. Abby took her seat beside him, laying back in his arms as he pulled her close and kissed her cheek.

"Are you going to share?" he asked, eyeing her sandwich first and then giving her the full effect of his big, brown puppy dog eyes. Abby rolled her eyes and offered him half of the buttery fried sandwich. "I really am sorry, love," he apologized as he chewed.

"I know. It's okay," Abby replied, crunching on a pickle. "You're the one with the cast on his leg."

"In my defence, it had nothing to do with the Camptosaurus. It was already back home and I'd locked the anomaly. It was just a rogue wave."

"A rogue wave? Honestly, Connor. I know it was just bad luck. It's just a bit stressful when your baby's father nearly gets swept out to sea in the middle of a storm."

Connor frowned, laying his hand over her rounded abdomen. "After all the things we've been through, and everything we've faced, I'd say we've actually got luck on our side."

"When you put it that way, yeah, we're pretty damn lucky." Both of them smiled when there came a little tap from the baby against Connor's palm. Abby lay her hand over his and sighed. "It's nearly five o'clock in the morning. Needless to say, we're not going into work tomorrow."

Connor nodded his head in agreement as he shifted positions and nestled down against Abby, laying his cheek to her stomach. "M'leg really hurts, Abby."

She began stroking her fingers through his hair in a soothing motion. "You've broken it, sweetheart. We should go to bed."

"M'happy here with you n' Lucky." He pulled up her singlet and tugged at her yoga pants, giving her bare belly a kiss as he wrapped his arms around her middle.

"Lucky?"

"Mmm hmm. It can be a nickname. We'll still call 'em Nick if it's a boy and Sarah if it's a girl."

"Lucky. I like it. Lucky Temple. Kinda fits." Abby went to speak again, but let her words fall away at Connor's snoring. He was sound asleep. She smiled down at him, pressed her finger to her lips to kiss before putting it to his own lips. She gathered the throw from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around them, reached over and turned off the lamp, then put her feet up and relaxed. She slowly drifted off to sleep, warm and content in Connor's embrace. _Lucky Temple_ sounded very nice indeed.

The End


End file.
